Kaikōura District Council Hospo Project a finalist in LGNZ EXCELLENCE Awards

13 June 2018

Kaikōura District Council’s project to bring local businesses together to feed infrastructure recovery workers is a finalist in the Local Government New Zealand EXCELLENCE Awards 2018, in the Fulton Hogan EXCELLENCE Award for Community Engagement.

Kaikōura District Council’s project to bring local businesses together to feed infrastructure recovery workers is a finalist in the Local Government New Zealand EXCELLENCE Awards 2018, in the Fulton Hogan EXCELLENCE Award for Community Engagement.

Now in their fifth year, the Awards recognise and celebrate the key leadership role that local government plays in communities around the country.

The Hospo Project: Feeding the Village People was created to reinvigorate Kaikōura’s economy after the 2016 earthquake and empowered 22 local businesses to work together to execute a multimillion dollar ‘catering service’ contract.

It led to local businesses working with the Council, North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery, NZ Transport Agency, KiwiRail and Compass to provide catering for up to 300 workers.

Judges praised the Council-led response noting “It was an excellent example of the council operating in a time of significant pressure by empowering local businesses to work together to provide catering services to the construction workers.”

LGNZ President Dave Cull says that being named as a finalist is a significant achievement and reflects strong leadership and the innovative work being delivered by councils across the country.

“The finalists include some exceptional projects that are having a profound impact on communities. The EXCELLENCE Awards finalists all demonstrate innovation, excellence in communication and consultation to involve communities in the decisions and planning which frame their future.”

The finalists incorporate best practice criteria under LGNZ’s CouncilMARK™ excellence programme which is designed to improve the public’s knowledge of the work councils are doing in their communities and to support individual councils to further improve the service and value they provide.